Colorado Northwestern Community College literary magazine celebrates 10 years

How to enterSubmissions for the 2018 Waving Hands Review will be accepted until Feb.15. Work must be the original work of the author, artist or photographer. All copyrights remain with the author, artist or photographer. Those selected will be notified by email by March 31.Submissions may include the following.

Poetry, lyrics

Fiction

Creative non-fiction

Personal essays

Political essays, treatises, manifestos

Humorous essays, parodies

Serious or gonzo journalism, critical looks at culture.

Photography, manipulated photography, photo collages

Photographs of 2-D and 3-D artwork

Digital artwork, graphic design

Drawings, sketches, cartoons

Fragments—observations, aphorism

Editors’ Choice Awards$50 prizes will be awarded in each of the following categories.

artwork (including photography)

poetry

fiction

nonfiction (creative non-fiction, essays, journalism)

Fiction, creative non-fiction and essays should not exceed 10 double-spaced pages. Poems should not exceed 50 lines.Learn more and submit content by clicking the Waving Hands Review link at cncc.edu.

CRAIG — Colorado Northwestern Community College will publish the 10th issue of its award-winning literary magazine — “Waving Hands Review” — later this year, and the college is seeking submissions from artists, photographers and writers.

“We didn’t know when we started it how many times we would publish it. Every issue just seems to get better and better,” said Joe Wiley, CNCC instructor of English and philosophy.

The magazine has a clear mission: “To publish exemplary works by emerging and established writers and artists of Northwest Colorado,” as stated on the front cover of each edition.

“It has a Western Colorado flavor to it, since a lot of contributors are from this area,” said frequent contributor David Morris. “It’s wonderful that our area of the state can have a literary magazine. It does give people from this part of the state, who don’t have access to a lot of publishing situations … an option and motivation to write something and get something published.”

The college first published the magazine in 2009.

“It was much smaller and didn’t have any color. It was a balloon that we floated, and it took off after that,” Wiley said.

Since then, the Community College Humanities Association has recognized the magazine and its contributors with awards.

The 2015 issue, featuring Heather Zadra’s article on “The Tank,” earned second place in the Best Magazine from a small college category.

“There was a lot of demand for that issue. … We’ve even thought about reprinting the feature piece by Zandra,” said Wiley.

The feature essay in the 2017 edition — “High Noon for a Western Oil Town,” by Ken Bailey — garnered a second place award for writing.

“One thing that makes me happy about it is that we just compile it and make it happen, but the quality comes from the people who submit. The artists and writers of Northwest Colorado are the ones being recognized,” Wiley said.

A jury chooses the work published in the magazine.

“When choosing, they keep pieces anonymous and select them based on merit,” Wiley said.

The magazine enjoys wide circulation.

“We get submissions from all over the county, and we take a look and publish those, if they are good,” he said.

Wiley added, however, he would like to see more fiction submissions.

“It’s hard for the magazine to receive good fiction pieces,” he said “We get a lot of great non-fiction, but we don’t see as much imaginative fiction.”

The college is currently seeking submissions for the 10th-anniversary issue.

“We’d like this 10th-anniversary issue to be something special,” said CNCC Marketing Director Brian MacKenzie.

The deadline to submit is Feb.15.

“We ask that people complete a small biographical section on a short form,” Wiley said.

Learn more and submit content by clicking the “Waving Hands” link at cncc.edu.

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